Burning Man.

September 2, 2000 12:34 PM

Burning Man. Does anyone really care anymore? It always seemed like a bogus 'artsy' version of Spring Break to me. Plus it pisses me off that a bunch of rampaging fools trash a perfectly good desert.
posted by Mr. skullhead (5 comments total)

On "trashing a perfectly good desert":

"When you depart from Burning Man, you leave no trace. Everything you built, you dismantle. The waste you make and the objects you consume leave with you. Volunteers will stay for weeks to return the Black Rock Desert to its pristine condition." (From the Burning Man website)

Of course, admittedly, there's theory and there's practice. There's always a few assholes who don't do their share. But still, the desert does get cleaned back up, so I don't quite see where the harm is.

I've never been. I want to go. Very badly. Time and Money. *shrug*
posted by webmutant at 2:16 PM on September 2, 2000

I was wondering why we weren't getting nearly as much fawning over the BM this year. Not that I'm missing it, but I was wondering. Guess all the Cool Hipness Factor has been transferred to SXSW.
posted by aaron at 3:18 PM on September 2, 2000

Plus, I think now that it's become inextricably linked to CBS's Big Brother, it's lost a lot of that counterculture cachet. Next year? Trailer park cachet.
posted by dhartung at 2:09 PM on September 3, 2000

SXSW is the wrong place to look if you're seeking a "Cool Hipness Factor"; that aspect evaporated soon after the first one was held.
posted by jblock at 6:37 PM on September 3, 2000

I've never been to a Burning Man, and I doubt I ever will, mostly because it's just not my schtick.

I do, however, understand the calling a lot of people feel towards it. A week of inhibition for a hundred bucks. That makes sense to me. I also understand how it's being terribly commercialized, but I don't think that in itself undermines it's validity as a form of expression and freedom.

I think it's explosion in popularity is due to the current hyper-focus on Silicon Valley. The people who are helping define what the web is now are defining a lot of what Pop Culture is now, and these people are the ones who have been attending Burning Man, or SXSW (or NXNE or SXSE or any of the "xbyy" festivals) for a few years.

It is, therefore, the place for people to be, and probably will be for a few years.

What I'd really like to see for Burning Man is to have it still be well known, but eventually fade - and I'm sure it will - from the general public's radar. Eventually it will return to being about people seeking freedom of expression, and less about people seeking freedom of other peoples' genitalia.
posted by cCranium at 8:25 PM on September 3, 2000